1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly, to a floating connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
A floating connector is known as a connector that electrically connects substrates. The floating connector includes a substrate-side housing to be mounted on a substrate, a fitting-side housing received in the substrate-side housing, and terminals fixed at one end to the substrate-side housing, fixed at the other end to the fitting-side housing, and having movable springs that elastically support the fitting-side housing displaceably relative to the substrate-side housing. This floating connector is mounted on one of the substrates to be connected to each other. On the other substrate, a counterpart connector is mounted as a connection object to be fitted and connected to the fitting-side housing of the floating connector (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-249076).
For example, one or an accumulation of a tolerance of a housing of an electronic apparatus, a tolerance of a seat at which a substrate is screwed to the housing, and a warp occurring in the substrate becomes a disturbance factor that hinders connectors connected to each other from being inserted and fitted in a proper posture. Such a disturbance factor appears as a relative tilt between substrates on which the connectors are mounted when the connectors are inserted and fitted.
FIG. 13 is a schematic view of an example of such a floating connector, and illustrates a state in which a substrate P1 on which a floating connector 1 is mounted is turned on a front-rear direction Y orthogonal to a width direction X and is tilted relative to a substrate P2 on which a counterpart connector M is mounted. The floating connector 1 requires reliable fitting and connection to the counterpart connector M while assuming that there is such a tilt between the substrates P1 and P2.
For this reason, the floating connector 1 has a floating function such that a fitting-side housing 3 is displaced relative to a substrate-side housing 2 to absorb the tilt of the substrate P1. The fitting-side housing 3 is displaced by elastic deformation of movable springs 4 and 5 of terminals. Therefore, when the substrate P1 is tilted in the fitted state, as illustrated in FIG. 13, the right movable spring 5 in FIG. 13 is greatly expanded upward in the initial state of fitting, and a great stress constantly acts. Hence, in the existing floating connector 1, problems, such as plastic deformation of the movable springs 4 and 5 and deterioration of fatigue durability, sometimes occur.
Further, in the conventional floating connector 1, fall-preventing projections 3a for the substrate-side housing 2 project from both sides of the fitting-side housing 3 in the width direction X, and the substrate-side housing 2 has abutment receiving portions 2a by which the fall-preventing projections 3a are retained. Between the fall-preventing projections 3a and the abutment receiving portions 2a, movable gaps 6 of the fitting-side housing 3 are provided. For this reason, the conventional floating connector 1 has a problem in that the fitting-side housing 3 and the substrate-side housing 2 are large in the width direction X.